A mail list is a lot like the First Amendment. They are both about freely expressing
one's opinion and commenting on the opinions of other. The beauty of both of these is
that they create an environment in which ideas can evolve and we can all benefit. We
are free to evaluate data for ourselves. This occurs by:
1. exchange of ideas
2. brainstorming new ideas
3. debating ideas
4. criticizing ideas we consider to be invalid or flawed somehow
This fourth point is just as necessary as the rest. It can ruffle feathers, however.
Three solutions I see for the ruffles are:
1. Have a thicker skin (from Rachel). Don't take sarcasm as personal. Instead see it
as professional roasting (humor involved) from one's peer(s). The most effective
response to such sarcasm is an appeal to reason on the issues. Then you look far
better than the sarcastic attacker especially if his ideas are flawed somehow. Keep
your cool = come out ahead.
2. Better Netiquet all around. I for one could improve here. I have on occasion in
times past been hotly (perhaps harshly so) sarcastic on some points I thought invalid.
I think I could have made my sarcasms gentler and more humorous and thus more
effective in debunking some hype.
3. Keeping a free and un-moderated open forum like this takes a definite level of
tolerance all around. Survive the bad to keep gleaning the good. And there is much
good here.
That said, then yes, let's move straight into production without further comment.
I believe we had a great battle of ideas on the Need for Speed thread up through the
middle of this week. Dick and Mark, both did a excellent job on competing ideas as
well as the perspectives from many others. The two myths that I hope we have now
debunked are:
1. XML is somehow a silver bullet, and EDI is to disapear soon.
At 04:50 PM 7/28/00 -0700, Brian Curtis wrote:
>Or... Maybe not. In any case, I'm not going anywhere... You can't get rid of
>me. So, lets move on people. This list is supposed to be productive... I
>don't see production.
Steve Bollinger 408-853-8478
Cisco Systems B2B Service Logistics Pjt
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